Mokisha at Palmerston Island
07 July 2008 | Palmerston, Cook Islands
Colleen
Palmerston has been one of the most interesting places islands we've visited. There's no airstrip and a cargo boat comes about every 3 months with supplies for the island. There's only 50 people on the entire island. Within the lagoon there are several small islands, including one called "Tom's Island". They are all uninhabited. William Marsters arrived on the island in 1863 with 3 Polynesian women which all became his wives. By the time he died in 1899, he was 78 and had bore 21 children. The 3 families have divided the island into sections & cannot not marry within their own 'group'. Today there are thousands of Marsters decedents but most of them live in New Zealand or Raratonga.
When we arrived at Palmerston at 7 am and were assigned a mooring. The cargo boat had also arrived the same time so we were told that we had to stay on the boat & they would get to us as soon as they could to check us in. We were exhausted so we went to bed. Well, they never did get to us that day. Tere Marsters is the local customs officer, politician & minister of the church. The next morning he came out to the boat to officially check us in, apologizing profusely for the delay. Tere then assigned Edward & Shirley to become our "hosts''. We were then informed that Edward would be coming out to get us & would take us to his home, show us around the island and serve us lunch. Another boat with three Danish guys, Christen, Casper & Rasmuss were to join us. We had a great lunch and a tour around the island which took about 15 minutes if you were just to walk around it. Yvonne, Tere's wife runs the school. There are about 14 kids who attend school so they all get one on one attention. The curriculum seems to be quite good and the schooling impressive. I copied Planet Earth DVD's for them which were very much appreciated. The rest of the afternoon we spent exploring "Tom's Island". The Danish boys went off fishing with Edward. Once back on the island, Edward insisted we stay for dinner. They had caught a fair amount of fish so the boys went to work cleaning the fish. Palmerston sells their fish to resorts in Raratonga & the cargo boat would be stopping back by to pick up fish as it returned to Raratonga so they were hoping to catch about a thousand lbs. of fish before the cargo boat returned. We didn't even return to Mokisha until midnight that night! A late Saturday night for us and Sunday morning came even quicker where Edward asked us to attend church with them. Unbeknownst to us, this was to be another long day. Edward picked us up at 9 am. I wore a dress & Tom long pants - I was then informed I HAD to wear a hat in church. Also, men sat on one side of the church, women on the other. The sermon by Tere was great and the traditional singing was fantastic. Lunch followed church, then quiet time. We thought we'd be able to return to the boat after lunch but it's against the rules to make a lot of noise or run the boats so the afternoon was spent socializing & walking around the island. Finally, around 5 pm Edward said he'd take us back to the boat. We were to leave the next day.
Our experience was fantastic. We were really able to get to know the families, culture and island life. There's a strong under current of competition between people, squabbling and obvious problems among the people who live there. Not something I could do, but never less the visit was a real treat and insight. We're so glad we didn't pass up Palmerston.
Colleen & Tom